Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🏀 A jump shot 🌫️ A slow disappearance
fadeaway

fadeaway

2 5.2
A basketball shot taken while jumping backward to get space from a defender
  • noun
  • /ˈfeɪdəˌweɪ/
  • Jargon
translation icon : fadeaway
  • During the game, he pulled off a spectacular fadeaway shot over his defender.
  • fadeaway jumper
  • fadeaway jump shot
  • hit a fadeaway

Examples

  • She practiced her fadeaway jumper every day to improve her basketball skills.

  • ...then hit the fadeaway jumper?

    Life As We Know It (2010)

  • Now, you take... the fadeaway jump shot.

    Last Flag Flying (2017)

  • The fadeaway at the buzzer, -and it's good!

    Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken (2023)

  • Bargnwitzki with a fadeaway... and missed!

    Blog text (15)

  • Sully's fadeaway in the paint is his go-to move and is a sight to see.

    Blog text (33)

  • The 6-foot-9 Parsons used his height advantage to nail a tough 20-foot fadeaway with Rivers' hand in his face.

    Blog text (26)

  • With the shot clock expiring and a defender in his face, Allen stepped back and swished a low-percentage fadeaway that gave George Mason the lead for good, 60-57.

    Blog text (8)

  • With only seconds left on the clock, he executed a perfect fadeaway to secure the win.

Synonyms

jumper
vsfadeaway
  • Jargon
23 5.1

A shot in basketball made while the player is jumping

focuses on the general airborne release without backward motion for space
jump shot
vsfadeaway
19 2.7

A basketball shot made while you jump and let go of the ball at the top

moves backward while rising to create space from a defender

Surface Forms

fadeaway singular
fadeaways plural

Morphology

fadeaway = fade + away (semi-transparent) = fade + away

The components 'fade' + 'away' are clear, but the basketball sense is a specialized shooting technique whose specific mechanics are not directly inferable by a general B1 learner.

Etymology

The word fadeaway comes from two simple words: fade meaning 'to become less bright, strong, or loud' and away meaning 'to move back or disappear'. In basketball a fadeaway is a shot where the player jumps back away from the defender to make space, so the name shows the player 'fading away' from the basket.